The Flood

Before I begin the retelling of this story I want to get you in my mindset – why this was so frightening. Trevor. Cannot. Swim.

Something Mild

The vacation was a surprise gift from my mother and father in law, something neither one of us saw coming. After seeing how difficult this year has been for us they wanted to give us the vacation we crave, and what we craved more than anything was the cabin in the woods. This was where my family always escaped to in the summer, the place where Trevor and I went on our honeymoon. This was our happy place.

Luckily, before the sky opened up I remembered to take some photos.

As you can see the cabin we stayed in was built up on the hill, away from the lake. We never thought in our right minds that this was going to be a saving grace.

The first day it rained, but only slightly. It was more like a humid blanked had been draped over us, we couldn’t have cared less. It was our place, and it was our time to be away from phones, computers, work, money and every other care in the world. We listened to music, we danced (I know, so darn sweet it makes my teeth hurt), we cooked, we read, we walked….we did all the things we always did when we came here. This was Friday. By Saturday, things started to change.

Just Starting.

Getting Heavier.

The Downpour.

The Water got Dark.

And Things Got Bad.

By the time we lost power on Saturday we had 5 inches of rain and the lake, a runoff from the river, had risen to engulf what was left of the land between cabins. Our cabin was the highest of them all, and thus suffered the least amount of damage (and no damage to the car). We though this was going to be a great story! We played Scrabble, took a nap and went about preparing to read for 24 hours straight – heaven in our books.

But it just kept raining.

We kept reading, eating fresh fruit and drinking copious amounts of coffee, and we listened to it rain. We came to the decision very early in the morning that it was time to get out. Well, that just wasn’t going to happen.

At this point, the Evil Dead was playing over and over in my mind. Trapped in a cabin, no phone and no way to contact our family. We were trapped here – and my husband cannot swim. I will be the first to admit that after I took the photo my Panic Monster reared its ugly head and I had a full-fledged meltdown on the road. Trevor was calming, comforting, and more than anything he was reasonable. We would go back to the cabin and read, waiting for the storm to stop. Ash Caves floods all the time, and the flash floods dissipate in hours due to the great civic engineers that plan for this.

So back to the cabin. The rain never relented its beating on the roof and slowly the pages of our books begin to wilt with moisture. Between the two of us though (I figured I should add this) we finished:

Trevor’s.

Mine.

Mine.

Trevor’s.

Mine.

By noon, the poor couple across the lake tried to make a run for it. Their car seemed to disappear into the mud and the water rose very, very quickly. The clawed (yes, they clawed) their way out of the car and back to the cabin. This is when the network of people trapped in the valley went to their canoes and began helping one another. I wish I had taken pictures of this, but truth be told I was so scared of having Trevor in that water that I forgot to breath. With my foot he was adamant I stay inside, so me and my panic attack medication became old friends again.

We traded food, books, movies (some had portable DVD players and laptops that still had batteries) and board games. It wasn’t long after this that the man who owns the property showed up in his boat, ready to get us to the pay phone to call whoever we needed. Trevor took this picture when he made it up and called our parents and my brother respectively.

View from the Phone.

As you can see the rain had finally stopped, but the damage was done – we weren’t going anywhere. The gentleman told all of us not to fret – I am going to quote verbatim here:

“Of course I’m not going to charge you! Trying to leave here is as useless as tits on a nun!”.

So we ate marshmallows, read, played massive amounts of Scrabble and waited for either the cabin to go into the water or the water to recede. Finally, the next day the water seemed to be going down at a comical rate, like a giant stuck a straw in the lake and was taking monster gulps. The irrigation systems were back on track, we still had no power but who could care about that! I should thank my Dad for instilling in me the need to 1) Over-pack both clothes and food and 2) have a small, odd fetish for flashlights/lanterns/candles and everything else you could need to see in the dark.

We called home again, this time able to walk more than we paddled and for the first time in days I took a big deep breath. This was still our happy place – some stupid flash flood wasn’t going to take that away from us. When we were finally able to maneuver the car out we thought we were footloose and fancy free.

Ha!

The funniest (or saddest, I am choosing funniest) is that when we hit a hole backing out the trunk popped open and the bag with my knitting and our books when right into the water. I got out of the car and just hollered and laughed, go figure huh? We waded in thigh high water to retrieve what we could (we lost two books and two and a half knitting projects) but who cared? We laughed the whole way home.

Looking back it is already taking on the quality of a good story, a damned good story in my opinion. If all works out, this is what my NANOWriMo novel is going to be this year, there are too many “what if’s?” to ignore the possibility of a great story. As for Trevor and I, we are glad o be home, clean, feed and curled up with Max who refuses to leave our side. All in all, I have to say it was a truly epic anniversary!

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49 thoughts on “The Flood”

Well that’s a great yarn, if you don’t mind the pun. Sorry about your knitting projects, but at least you can replace those; speaking of which, I don’t get people who can’t swim. My mother in-law is like that and it boggles my mind. But I’m glad you made it back alright.

Thank you. As a kid he saw another boy in his swim class drown – he’d had a seizure and the guard was taking a smoke break. Since then anything bigger than a hot tub is a no go.
Did I mention he can’t ride a bike either? No good story there though – just horrible balance 🙂

Nope, kid did time. The boy who died parents were lawyers – convinced all the other kids parents to attest to what they saw. The owner of the pool was more than happy to admit to anyone that would listen that the kid was a “bad seed”. Truth really is more jacked up than fiction.

I would hate losing needles. 😦 That is not cool. I hate floods…. My town has had two massive floods in the past three years… My partner lost his job due to the floods we had in January. And his grandma lost everything this past flood and two years prior lost half of her stuff. I am glad that you got out safe and that the cabin was fine. I know how bad floods can be.
Rogue
P.S. I can swim a little but I dislike it because I almost Drowned me and my twin when we were 5. I totally understand not swimming…

Dude! Nanowrimo that s**t for sure!! (pardon the language, I just got excited. It’s a perfect skeleton for a story that could be creepy or adventurous or scary or all three of those!) I’m sooooo glad that you made it back safely, and it’s so scary that Trevor can’t swim! However, if it makes you feel any better, most people, when they’re thrown into deep water, will figure out at least how to keep themselves afloat. It’s instinctual 🙂

Evil Dead is the absolute first thing I would think of, followed immediately by the desire to nail shut any kind of basement or cellar rental be damned. Which is sad add my first reaction should probably be “let’s survive a flood” not “let’s keep from summoning the dead accidentally” oh well.

Glad your vacation ended on a positive note and you’re okay! Fantastic story to tell though.

Without embarrassing myself it was. No power, rain and lightening and thunder….oh my!
The story I have in my head is just whirling, I wish it was

November already so I could get to it – all the things in my mind that could have turned out so differently are just waiting to be written down!

As for the knitting and the books, well, at least I never take library books on vacation (thus the reason the things I read weren’t on my original list) I lost a scarf, a placemat and…saddest knitting thing – the second sock to my first pair. Luckily I am stocked up on that yarn so at least it wasn’t my last skein. Now, when I put on those socks I am going to be super appreciative of the fact that my feet are warm and dry! 🙂

Heck of a story! The problem with weather like this isn’t the event itself – it’s that it hit an area so thoroughly unprepared. I thought the same thing about Sandy last year. It was stronger when it hit here than when it hit up in New England, but we were recovered in 2-3 days and they’re still recovering. Sending thoughts and prayers up your way!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you, I fear I have been neglecting my blog a bit. We were incredibly lucky that it took just 2 days to recede – I was getting a bit stir crazy. I wish I had a video camera though, because watching that water go down was mesmerizing, like a plug being pulled out of a bathtub.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I don’t talk about politics or religion on my blog but lets just say that it is really appreciated.

glad you are both safe and sound. Trevor doesn’t need to learn to swim, he needs to learn to float and tread water and then get himself a good life jacket. 🙂 But other than that, it sounds like a good adventure – but I have to say – WHY WERE YOU DRIVING IN THIGH HIGH WATER?????

And it might be worth putting an ad in the local paper up there about hte knitting – someone downriver might find it and give you back your needles!

Thank goodness you’re safe and lucky that your cabin was higher up than the others. Sorry about your knitting, could you contact the cabin owner in case your knitting is found?
I suppose the upside is…… more knitting to replace what you lost!

Loving the poor light solution! Not having that problem at the moment, but in the winter it is a right pain – dark until I’m getting ready to leave for work (no time for pics) and dark when I get back.

Great deciphering working the patterns – I have a stupid shorthand for knitting too but I try not to use it because I change my mind like the weather so it’s a bit inconsistent! I might forget what I meant!